Chapter twenty - Caring Chest

~*~

"Go Geoffrey!" I yell without making any sound.

It's the first game our school team has to play for the new season, and Geoffrey has made it to the team.

Even better; he managed to play for a while during their first game.

He's currently running from the bench to his spot on the field, god knows where that is.

I am not exaggerating when I say that I don't know a damn thing about football, I never even attended a game from our team, which in our school is a rather big crime.

But since it's Geoffrey's first game, I even managed to drag Lana along with me.

In despise, we watch the Sleers in their miniskirts, trying to impress each and every eye that belongs to a guy.

I can't even explain how proud I am of the fact that Geoffrey could participate, he deserves it. He has been working out even harder, and never missed a single practice.

The news about his arrival in the team didn't please everyone. It was especially hard in the beginning because some girlfriends of the team players couldn't keep their hands of him, but most of the guys now realize that it wasn't Geoffrey's fault.

He really doesn't sleep around.

Latoya has been bitchier than ever before, because now she isn't only captain of the cheerleaders, she's also in a 'relationship' with one of the football players. She has been pressuring him into becoming the captain of the team, only for her own good.

But that's not his ambition, he only wants to play, have fun and I hope he'll also make some new friends, some who'll keep him away from all the drugs and fights.

People are yelling and cheering and so am I, not even knowing what they are cheering for.

"What? What happened?" Lana yells after I spring up, just like everyone else.

"No idea, just go with the flow!" I doubt she understood a word of all that.

"I can't believe you got me to come here," she yells when I sit back down next to her. "Especially when you aren't even admitting why you wanted to come so badly." I shove her in the stomach.

"Shut up," I try to say it in an irritated voice but can't hide the blush on my cheeks.

My thoughts wander back to a couple of weeks ago, to New Year's Eve to be more exact.

When Lana had come home, she immediately came over to my house to celebrate it further. By then it was already three in the morning, but she insisted on coming by.

Then I finally convinced Geoffrey that it was okay that he'd go to the party, so he left.

But no more than an hour later, I received a call from him. "Hello?" I asked a bit confused.

"You know," he started, sounding surprisingly sober. "all these girls seem a lot less attractive when you're sober."

I chuckled, twirling a strand of hair around my finger, ignoring Lana who was mimicking me.

"Do they?" I asked.

"Yeah absolutely," he said, "Especially when I just spend the night with a girl like you."

My cheeks invented a new shade of red, causing Lana to shot me all kinds of looks.

"Would it be okay if I came like-"

"Like what?" I asked a little too eager.

"If I came home?"

"Yeah of course!" But then I spotted Lana's stupid face in the background. "Oh I'm sorry, I can't ditch Lana like that."

"And what if I bring home a friend?"

"What friend?"

"A friend she might be interested in?" I doubted it for a second.

"If she isn't pleased with your friend, am I allowed to kick you out?"

"Yes ma'am," he chuckled. After Lana agreed, I let him come over.

I wasn't that pleased to see that he had brought Wesley along (I should've known), but Lana seemed happy about it, and all I wanted to do was spend the night in Geoffrey's arms, so we both got what we wanted.

"Oh my god!" Lana yells.

"What, what?" I return my attention to the field.

"I don't know, everyone started booing all of a sudden," She says.

When I spot Geoffrey looking our way, I send him thumbs up which he replies with a goofy smile.

"Dude, the guy's such a goner!" Lana receives yet another deserved punch.

As far as I could tell, he did great, especially when you consider the fact that he stopped playing years ago.

Apparently, our team won, causing the sleers and a lot of other kids to run up the field.

Yeah, I have to admit that seeing Latoya jump into Geoffrey's arms hit me like a knife in the eye.

But I'm okay with that.

Okay, no I am not, but today it's not about me, it's all about him.

Meet me behind parking lot 3 in 10

Geoffrey sends me after the team disappeared into the locker room.

Seven minutes later I am at the meeting point, being glad that Lana had to go home early.

I release a shriek when I'm thrown into air. "So, so how was I?" A brightly smiling Geoffrey asks when he turns me around.

"You were great!"

"You don't get a damn thing about it do you?" he says, still smiling.

"No, but-" I say, "but I know that you were great, otherwise the coach wouldn't let you play, would he?"

"Smart ass."

"So are you guys going to celebrate it?" I ask while flushing red when I realize that he's still holding onto my waist.

"Jup, there is this party at Rafael's place, you can come if you'd like," he proposes.

"No thanks, won't want to come between you and your future friends," I wink.

"Nah your bad." He finally lets go of me, allowing me to breathe again.

"Have fun!" I call after him as I start to make my way over to my Vespa.

"Will do!"

I rummage through my purse, trying to get a hold of my keys. Damn I didn't drop them, did I?

"God damn it." I curse as I put my purse down, come on, come on!

"Well well, look what we've got here." I recognize her voice immediately, I so do not want to deal with her right now.

"What do you want, Latoya?" I spin around and as if only Latoya isn't already bad enough on her own, I have to swallow yet another time to be able to face what's in front of me.

Tattoo-guy.

Oh shit.

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear," she says, taking a couple of steps forward into my direction. I back away, not necessarily for Latoya but for the dude next to her.

"Didn't she?" The guy spits.

Mommy help!

"Uh, I-I," I stammer, gulping one last time. "I don't know what y-you mean."

"Loren, Loren." She shakes her head. "Didn't I tell you to stay away from a special someone."

"Didn't she?" The guys spits again when don't answer, now blocking my only escape route.

I am plastered against the wall, all kind of thoughts running through my mind. Like why the hell did the tattoo dude go from 'stay the hell away from my sister' to 'stay the hell away from my sisters' not real boyfriend'.

"Can I give you a small tip?" She has this fake smile on her face. "Don't ever piss of someone as powerful as me."

The dude grabs a hold of my wrists, turning my arms behind my back. I struggle in his grip, but can't bring myself to even move an inch, I only end up hurtign myself even more.

"But my tip has come a little late." She grins, playing a bit with her nails that are like twenty inches long. "You've already upset me." She smiles on last time before turning into the crazy psycho bitch she really is.

"So don't you ever come close to Geoffrey ever again!" She slams her hand across my cheek, I wince in pain as the grip on my arms tighten even more.

Latoya's hand, cold as her heart, finds its way to my jaw, putting a force on to it. She lets her nails slide over my skin on the place she just hit. In a sweet voice she says, "do you understand?"

I nod, swallow and hope she'll let me go.

"I've got bad news Loren, since you've pissed me off, I don't think I can guarantee your safety anymore." She smiles, making me want to wet my pants. "I'd watch my back if I were you."

Then she let go of me, and points her finger at her brother. "Come on Pablo."

"I'll be watching you." Then she smiles and turns around. "Have a nice evening."

They both walk away and I take a few moments to control my breaths before sprinting towards my Vespa and praise myself lucky that I am able to locate my keys immediately.

I race home, at a speed rate I would judge any other day.

I close the door of my home, my safety place, and let the secureness this place holds engulf me.

At an attempt to wash today's events out of my mind, I decide to have a little bit of me time.

This night, it would be about me and me relaxing, me eating, me sleeping, me walking around in my formless pajamas...

I gasp for a second when I enter the bathroom and face the mirror.

With my mouth wide open, I trace the bruise with my index finger. The places where her nails touched my skin are scratched open a bit. I let my hair fall down to the sides again, trying to cover it up.

SLASH.

I turn as fast as I can, running out of breath immediately. Wwwwhat was that? My hands start shaking, nearly poking myself in the eye.

Some-someone is in here.

I tip-toe over to the hallway. This is nothing, Loren, just some stupid glass braking, nothing less, nothing more, it'll all go away you're safe here.

Releasing a breath, I stand back on the soles of my feet, staying where I was for another second.

I take another breath, and then step a little farther.

It was all just a mistake, a misunderstanding, a thing I couldn't place but certainly nothing to be afraid of, nope, nope nothing to be-

DANG.

The sound of someone hitting something echoes through the house.

Heavy breaths return, shaking as well and sweat trembles down my arms. Tears well up in my eyes as I hurry into my room, leaving a little space between the door and it's hangings. No way in hell am I going to produce any noise by closing this thing.

I'm not being delusional, am I? I mean, who'd break into our house?

I'd watch my back if I were you.

And when those words hit me, I grab my phone out of my pocket faster than you can say 'a'.

My fingers slide over the buttons of my screen as I dial his number. "Pick up, pick up."

"Loren?" He's laughing, I can hear that, by the way he pronounces my name.

He was having fun and I am going to ruin it.

"Loren?" His voice is so comforting, so sweet as sugar.

I want to do nothing more than to cling myself into his arms and never let go of him ever again.

"Uh Loren?" His tone makes me become aware of why I was calling him again. "Could you say something?" The amount of decibels in the background decreases.

"I-I,"

"What?" He kind of yells into my ear. "I can't understand a thing you're saying, wait a sec, I'm going outside."

"I'm sorry," I say.

"What's going on?"

"They're going to hurt me," I sob.

"What are you talking about?"

"Th-they're inside the house," I back away from the door.

He hesitates for a second and I let out a small cry unwillingly , "Where are they?"

"Downstairs."

"Hide in your walk-in wardrobe and don't come out until you hear me okay?" I nod, not even caring about the fact that he can't see that. "I'll be there in five, just hang on."

Then he ends the call.

Don't end the call!

He ended it and it feels like he has just cut through my last source of oxygen.

Ducking underneath a couple of my racks inside my closet, I embrace myself with my arms.

Ten minutes later, I hear a bit tumult from outside and a little bit later, also inside the house.

Feet make their way up the stairs and I hope for my own sake that they belong to Geoffrey.

I hear my bedroom door fly open, and someone reaching for my closet door. I shriek, close my eyes and hope death wouldn't hurt as much as I imagined.

"Loren?"

Thank God!

I spring up out of my hiding spot and right into his arms. I don't even care about his prestigious shirt being ruined, I'm just glad that he's here.

"Come on," he says, leading me downstairs once I calmed down a bit.

When we finally reach the ground floor (which has taken us pretty long since I didn't dare to move an inch at a time), I spot the three other guys. At the same moment, Geoffrey drops my hand and gets to the side of his friends.

"There was nothing missing," Dwayne begins.

"No sign of forced entry," Wes continues.

"No trace of anyone being here, beside a glass that got shattered to the ground."

"Are you sure someone was in here?" Dwayne says as if he didn't believe me.

I nod.

"Did you see them?" I shake my head.

"Did you know who was in here?" This time I hesitate.

It couldn't be her, right? She wouldn't go that far, would she?

"Loren," Geoffrey's voice makes me look up. It's so much nicer than Dwayne's, not as rough and hateful, rather hurt and sad. "Tell us what you know."

"I th-think it was that guy."

"What guy?"

"The one who was at our door earlier," I refer to tattoo guy.

"That doesn't make any sense," Geoffrey spits, not at me, rather at society in common.

"We gave them the money they needed," Dwayne reverses.

"Can I put the light on?" I ask, not being the slightest comfortable in the dark.

"Yeah sure," Chester switches the light on.

"What's that on your face?" Wesley yells.

The bruise! Fuck I forgot about that.

"Uh nothing," I say, covering my face by my hand.

"And what is that on your arms?" Chester asks.

Oh damn. "It's nothing guys, for real. I just ran into the door."

I try to avert the eyes of every person in here, especially the dark haired one.

"Okay guys, you can go home now." He breaks the ice, "I'll handle this." The guys leave as fast as they came.

"You ran into the door?" He arches an eyebrow at me. I nod, still ignoring his attempts at making eye contact.

He grabs a hold of my jaw and I wince at the memory of Latoya doing it a couple of hours ago.

"Woah, calm down," he says, touching it again, much more careful this time. "Who did this to you?"

I shake my head, I really don't want to talk about it.

"I-"

"You?" he asks.

"I want to go to sleep," I say and let myself fall forward, straight into his chest.

"You'll tell me right?" He picks me up bridal style. "Just promise me you'll tell me."

My eyes flutter close. "I told you already, I ran into a door."

"My sweet Loren," he releases a laugh. "You might be the biggest idiot I know, you are not capable of getting injured that way by running into a door."

I grin into his chest. "Is that a challenge Rice?"

~*~

To be honest, I don't really like this one... But I like the next one :p

Please let me know what you guys think!